Help protect... the hungry

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 2005 report states that hunger causes the death of more than five million children a year. With the world’s population expected to increase from 6 billion to reach 9 billion by 2050, one of the most urgent questions we now face is how we, as a species, will feed ourselves in the 21st century.

Land availability is one of the main constraints on food production. The Earth has only a limited area of viable agricultural land, so how this land is used is central to our ability to feed the world. Western diets play a large part in depriving the world’s poor of much needed food. This is because livestock consume much more protein, water and calories than they produce. Most of the protein from vegetable feeds is used for the animal’s bodily functions and not converted to meat, eggs or milk.

How your diet can help

Studies indicate that a varied vegan diet requires about a third of the land needed for conventional Western diets.

Quite simply, we do not have enough land to feed everyone on an animal-based diet. So while 840 million people do not have enough food, we continue to waste valuable agricultural land by obtaining only a small fraction of its potential calorific value.

The world’s population is increasing and viable agricultural lands are diminishing. If we are to avoid future global food scarcity we must find sustainable ways of utilising our natural resource base. Industrial livestock production is unsustainable and unjustifiable.